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User blog:NoBanana/Card Rebalancing
Semi-ranty thing I've written. Here's what I think we should do to every card to make them worth considering. Design Philosophy No card is objectively worse than another, even when it's a lower rarity. This is the main change made - by making all cards worth considering, you add a significant amount of content with a very reduced production cost, as the cards and art and animation are already created. You're just taking content that's already been created and changing it so people get to enjoy it. Where possible, cards just see changes to numbers. I've made an effort to include as few new features as possible. Many cards have been reduced to 0 cost, and the mana ramp cards (meditate and shadow trade) have seen significant nerfs. This allows the game to retain a fast pace (as there are far fewer passed turns) without being warped by suddenly vomiting out huge piles of mana and then basically losing next turn if you don't win with the instant-mana you generated. Additionally, the increased focus on playing a card every turn means you're less likely to sit around with a full hand all the time, so card draw gets to be more useful. Attack Cards 0 Bits Wisp No changes. 1 Bit Smack Costs 0 bits. Backhand Smack Deals 15 damage. Scratch Deals 10 damage. Inflicts a 15% attack debuff. Panic Deals 20 damage. Attacks as if confused. Rusty Knife Deal 10 damage. Deal double damage if attacking from behind. Alternatively, deals 15 damage, inflicts a 15% defence debuff. Spell Backfire No changes. Soul Missile No changes. Uppercut Deals 8 damage. Inflicts 1 turn of confusion. Also, have bandits drop this. Currently it's unobtainable outside of the starter copy. Rock Smash Now costs 2 bits. Deals 15 damage. Stunlocking is bad. Also, this'd step on the toes of Uppercut too much if it was 1 bit. Ember No changes. Pollute No changes. 2 Bits The Ole' One-Two Second attack deals 15 damage. Wooden Club Slam No changes. Wand Zap Has a range of 3. Ignite Burn now lasts 3 turns. If the target is on fire, deal 15 damage. Poison Dagger Now deals 10 direct damage instead of 15. This means it's not a direct upgrade to Ignite. That said, they do overlap a little. 3 Bits Fireball Now deals 30 immediate damage (instead of 20). Burn only lasts for 1 turn. This makes it more buffable and less like core infliction. Lightning Bolt Range increased to 4. Chain Lightning Cost increased to 4. Damage now lowered by 10% per "chain" (instead of 20%). Currently, the sharp damage reduction makes this ineffective, even in perfect conditions. This'd make it a strong attack to buff up, assuming your opponents are in a good position. Bow and Arrow Deals 45 damage. Cannot attack a target in an adjacent tile. "but NoBanana, now it's stronger than lightning bolt, and it's common" Depends on how you look at it. It's a lot less versatile than lightning bolt, for only 5 damage. Papercut Now deals 8 damage per card. 56 damage against targets with a full hand (didn't even play a card last turn). 48 against 6 cards, 40 against 5. Bear in mind this card is both melee and conditional, so an above average strength is fine. It also can't be buffed. Aura Pierce Now deals 0 damage, and 10 additional damage for each status effect on the opponent. This card was completely redone so as to not overlap with Lightning Bolt. Also, this card could be pretty strong when used right. Might want to give NPCs some status clearing cards. Toxic Knife No changes. Core Infliction No changes. IMO this would be balanced if it was single target, but I think it's been nerfed enough. I guess it is a legendary. 4 Bits Darksteel Longblade Deals 75 damage. We did just nerf this, but I think the problem was the quickplay buffs and stunlocking, not the card itself. Quickplay buffs and stunlocking cards got hit pretty hard in this balance proposal. Venomshank No longer deals 1.5x direct damage on poisoned targets. Instead, it applies a second poison effect (for 90 damage total). Distinguishes the card from Darksteel (DoT vs Direct). Applying two poison effects at once also opens up synergies with the new Aura Pierce. Healing Cards 1 Bit Afternoon Delight Heal reduced to 10. Costs 0 bits. Rest and Recovery No changes. Contact Heal Reduce to heal 8 per turn. 2 Bits Blue Elixir No changes. Wand Heal No changes. Blessed Rune Increase duration to 4 turns. Regenerative Pulse Heals all adjacent characters for 40 health, instantly. Yes, that includes enemies. 3 Bits Divine Grace Heals for 60 health. Holy Ground Increase healing per turn to 20. 5 Bits Huge Blessing Heals 80. Also removes confusion, sleep, poison and burn from the target. X Bits Horn of the Unicorn Now heals 15 per bit. Now targets all allies within 2 hexes of the caster. Whilst it's not healing for the most of any other healing card at any bit cost anymore, it's huge AoE and versatility still makes it an auto-include in any deck that wants healing. Buff Cards 0 Bits Strength Duality No longer quickplay. Still a really great support card. Just not OTK material. 1 Bit Attack Buff Costs 0 bits. The basic buffs are all changed to cost 0 to serve as filler for passed turns. Also to, y'know, give them an actual purpose. Defense Buff Costs 0 bits. Attack Debuff Costs 0 bits. Defense Debuff Costs 0 bits. Guided Strike Now increases attack by 40%. No longer quickplay. Quickplay buffs are uninteractive, since they let you use attacks like Rock Smash to clear away all attack debuffs and defence buffs, then immediately use a fully buffed heavy attack without letting your opponent do anything at all, so long as you have enough mana. High Cognition Costs 2 bits. Whilst this is just a really good value attack buff on it's own, when paired with summons it's ridiculous. Changing it to 2 makes it less ridiculous, but still worth building a deck around. Status Cards 0 Bits Antidote No longer quickplay. Really Loud Noise No changes. Pot of Greed Costs 1 bit. No longer quickplay. Why is this a card? Dispel No changes. Beauty Sleep Costs 0 bits. Extinguish No longer quickplay. Meditation No longer quickplay. Stuns you for a turn. As I've said earlier up, by adding a load more playable 0 cost cards, you can heavily nerf bit-ramp without making the game too slow. This is still good for people who want to play an expensive combo ASAP. It is no longer good for people who want to win the game on turn 1. Shadow Trade No longer quickplay. Instead of dealing damage, discard a random card. Discarding a random card disrupts combos, whereas dealing a small amount of damage to yourself doesn't matter at all because you're likely going to conclude the game the moment you play this. 1 Bit Conjure No changes. Rubber Duck Duck now lasts for 10 rounds. Long enough so that it's basically permanent, but not so long you can break the game with it. Body Cleanse Now cleanses all allies (and yourself) in a 1 hex AoE around the caster. Stupify Now has a range of 2. Mask of Calamity No changes. Mask of Truth No changes. Masquerade No longer gives the caster a card. Smokescreen No changes. Purge No longer quickplay. Magician's Secret Has a range of 2, randomly inflict either burn, poison, confusion or curse to your opponent for one turn. Burn and poison do 8 damage. Mystery Hat No changes. Teleport Costs 2 bits. Alternatively, no longer quickplay. Or both! Mask of Uncertainty No changes. 2 Bits Karaoke Now costs 3 bits. no stunlocking 4 u! >:( Enlighten No changes. Hocus Pocus No changes. You could consider this a problem card, but I like it. It's fairly expensive, and opens up a load of possibilities. If it's used in combos that break the game, I'd be more keen to blame the cards that it's being used on than Hocus Pocus itself. Insight Costs 4 bits, and lets you pick a card to discard from your opponents hand. This could be risky. I wanna see how this goes. Flame Blockade Costs 1 bit. Blinding Flash No changes. Zoink No changes. The stupefy nerf ought to account for this not being buffed. Trap Cards Aha! You activated my trap card! 0 Bits Ant Hill No changes. Banana Peel No changes. Meme cards are fun. 1 Bit Cursed Rune No changes. Cursed Spot Also inflicts a 15% attack debuff. Defence debuff (the card) got buffed, so this also gets buffed. Rather than making it also cost 0, the effect was made bigger to distinguish the two cards from each other. Bear Trap No changes. Category:Blog posts